Burning islands / Angry Shells / Burning Shells

Burning islands are the substitutes for stars in the world of clouds. They form the center of island formations and families of islands revolve around them. They look like dish shaped islands and have “angry water” inside them which burns off at the top and can burn for thousands of years. “membranes” are cave like entrances at the bottom of these islands – where this “angry water” comes in contact with cold air.

Cloudlighters

An ancient race who built bridges between islands through dense cloud formations. They earned the name "Cloudlighters" because they used to maintain huge lanterns along these bridges which showed would be migrants the way through the dark interior of the clouds. Later they abandoned these bridges and became Windmasters who developed the ability to change the color of their ships and their bodies to match the clouds they choose to hide in. Today they are also known as "Cloudghosts" , "Cloud workers" or "Ghost workers". They are very shy and rarely seen in the great triangle's world.

Corridors

Long stretches of open air between clouds that run vertically away from the triangle and can reach all the way to dark space. Strong winds keep these corridors free of clouds.

Dark Space

A derivative of sub space. The great blue triangle built his world inside dark space. Dark space surrounds the outer perimeter of the triangle's world and is slightly out of phase with sub space and completely undetectable from normal space.

Drop rocks

Rocks that Jumpthieves use to slow down their falls onto ships passing below islands onto which they sneak and steal from until they eventually move on to another ship. Drop rocks are tied to ropes that are tied around the jumpthieves' body. They leave the rock lying on the islands' top when they jump onto a ship passing below and the rock drags over the islands' surface to slow down their fall.

Flying Stones

Flying Stones are tiny pieces (no bigger than a grain of sand) left over from life forms which had been recycled by the great triangle, cursed and expelled from the world of clouds. They are trapped in a special resin - like jelly which the triangle uses to isolate these particles so that they can not "contaminate" its world. Flying stones travel out of the triangle's world at high speeds in vein - like formations which are called Rivers of Stone or Lightflows. These triangular "cookies" of resin are highly flammable and are captured and stored deep inside Stone Hunter ships, not only to keep the ships floating weightless against the gravitation pull of the triangle but also for consumption by the Stone Hunters.

Ice birds

Ice birds are transparent bird – like creatures that can pass in and out through “membranes” of burning islands. Like winged jelly fish. Inside their angry water domain they are almost invisible. Not much is known about them but they are very shy. They get their name from when they die, they turn into very hard transparent crystals that are very hard to break and often used as weapons and tools by primitive islanders.

Ice bleeders

Ice bleeders are ancient warriors or guards frozen in rock and bleeds ice when someone with unresolved issues from their past or someone that had a horrific thing happened to them comes too close to them.

Infiltrators

Infiltrators are beings created by the triangle (not captured). Infiltrators serve as spies for the triangle.

Intruders

Intruders are mutations of life forms (or a darker reflection of a being) created by an ancient monastery on a secret island hidden from the triangle's view. There the Intruder to be is forced to touch his or her reflection in the water of a magical and silver colored lake and so becomes the reflection (that appears darker in the water). Then his or her hands change into a silver color that can never rub off. Intruders can become any object or life form's reflection it touches with these silver hands but can never touch his or her's own reflection (and so never become himself or herself again). They hunt Infiltrators down and kill them using this ability to manipulate reflections.

Iron Drifters

Gigantic ships the blue triangle imported into its world during very early times. Today they drift around the World of Clouds as derelicts and entire forests grow on top of them. Alien and human life settled on them.

Jumpthieves

Stowaway kinda characters that use drop rocks to jump onto ships where they hide as long as they can while stealing off it as much as they can.

Light Shooter

A Light Shooter is the equivalent of a lighthouse on earth but unlike the big lamp you would find in the tower of the lighthouse, Light Shooters propel bright energy up along their towers and shoot it out at the top and high over the island that it is standing on. Almost like a giant flare. These energy "flares" are bright enough and hang in the air long enough to light up everything within a few miles around them. Light Shooters were built by an ancient race of Windmasters known as Slow Drifters who traveled in ships (which go by the same name) so big that their response time were too slow to avoid collisions with hidden islands or islands which had orbital planes that were too unstable and unpredictable. These towers, usually found on an island's edge are constructed from whatever natural building materials its island had to offer. Most of them are made from stone. Today very few of them still "shoot light" but almost all of them have been claimed by some kind of inhabitant. Usually an islander or sometimes a marooned Windmaster who would light fires in the top of the tower in the hope that a passing ship might come to his rescue. The giant remains of Slow Drifter ships are still found on obscure islands sometimes. They usually lie stretched out across the surface like giant dinosaur bones. Stone Hunters love to integrate these "metal skeletons" into their ships.

Needle Cloud

Needle Cloud is a region / big single cloud / fog bank where hundreds of large needle like islands drift around.

Polar Wind

The name of a deep sea exploration ship in the paperback novel MAP MAKERS.

Shadow Chasers

Windmasters who hide from the triangle's view in order to study it. They often "chase eclipses" or "shadows" around in the world of clouds from where they can study the great triangle in order to gather as much information from it as possible. They hope to either sell this to other Windmasters or use the information themselves to plan a great escape from the world. The triangle send Infiltrators on missions to hunt down and destroy Shadow Chasers.

Singing Islands

A singing island is a very rare phenomenon in the World of Clouds. They look like huge floating diamonds but refract visible light in a very different way than lets say a prism of the same size would. Each of the many facets glow a different color and keeps changing as you move around the island. Their very distinct "singing noise" comes from their surface which slowly melts into the purist water that can be found in the world of the blue triangle. These islands can exist in very small sizes too and are often captured and stored away by travelers to serve as a long lasting source of drinking water. Some believe that singing islands were the first creations dating back to a time period when there existed more than one great triangle. These triangles each had its own distinct color, not even two were alike. Then there was the war between the great triangles and only one, the blue one, survived. It was the blue triangle who later created the world of clouds. Singing islands travel through dark space like comets and occasionally move through the world of clouds where they suddenly lose their lifeless and colorless state of existence and become vibrant with revolving colors, while they slowly melt away.

Slow Drifters

Slow Drifters were Windmasters who explored the world of clouds in gigantic airships which go by the same name. No one knows what happened to them. Today only obscure artifacts can be found on remote islands which prove that they once existed.

Stone Hunters

A very aggressive breed of Windmasters who travel in big ships and collect Flying Stones. They consume these stones which give them supernatural powers but also make them turn to stone over time. Stone Hunters hate good looking people, especially when they are kind and have manners. Stone Hunter ships are very large steam locomotive like ships that are held in the air by Flying Stones that are stored inside huge drums inside the ship. Some leak out of the drums eventually and get stuck in the interior frameworks of the ship. That causes their blue glow to leak out through the front end of the ships. Dirt Balls are small furry creatures that feed on iron. Stone Hunter ships get invested with these little creatures that weakens the ships' infrastructure and can cause them to break apart during a storm or battle. The hook like spears sticking out from the front end of these ships are battering rams. That is how Stone Hunters attack and board other ships. By hooking on to them. Steam turbines in the back power tail drive units that generate force fields of some kind that pushes these ships forward. These ships carry an unforgettable stench along with them and attract swarms of bat like birds that are always following the ships wherever they go.

The Triangle Traders' guide to the World of Clouds

A secret notebook co-written by professor Jonathan Fipple and James Windward. They started using their down time in their Triangle Traders store to write everything down they experienced in their journey through the World of Clouds. This book is the only item not for sale in the store and its existence is a closely guarded secret.

Trimon

Trimons are primitive warning beacons or markers created and placed throughout the World of Clouds wherever items of value disappeared without a clear explanation. The natives usually attributed these disappearances to the great blue triangle which they saw as a god who moved things around in their world through mysterious and invisible gateways. They put these markers out to warn others not to go near a certain spot where one of these invisible gateways were believed to exist. They usually are made from three wooden sticks or branches tied at the ends and makes up a triangular shape. They vary greatly in size and craftsmanship. 

Triangulators

Beings who live in dark space and who build Trilateral projectors to power and control their ships.

Windmasters

A Windmaster is any being who has managed to master the art of flight in the world of the triangle.